Naomi Klein on the Library Profession

Reading the second issue of the zine The Borough Is My Library, I came across an amazing quote from Naomi Klein on the radical nature of the library profession. 

Author and activist Naomi Klein. (image: http://rabble.ca)

The Canadian author and social activist, most famous for her book No Logo, had this to say about librarians*:

"You probably didn't think that helping people to share books was subversive when you decided to become librarians. And it shouldn't be: sharing, giving, saving, and reusing are the most human of impulses, and we are at our best and most human when we act on them. The desire to share, as you know, is immense. Yet the fact is that you have chosen a profession that has become radical. Being a librarian today means being more than an archivist, more than a researcher, more than an educator. It means being a guardian of the embattled values of knowledge, public space, and sharing that animate your profession. You may not have chose it, but the fight against privatization and in defense of the public good has been thrust upon you by the mania for privatization, public private partnerships, and outsourcing."

* Spoken at the Joint American Library Association/Canadian Library Association Conference in Toronto on June 24, 2003